Up in the gods, Roman Abramovich shook his head. In the stands, there were
even a few boos. On the pitch, there were heads bowed after a third
successive defeat and a fourth match without a win. This was not how Chelsea
envisaged the second coming of their self-styled Special One.

These are early days since José Mourinho’s return to Stamford Bridge, of
course, but Abramovich is not exactly renowned for taking setbacks like
this, or the defeat by Everton on Saturday, or even the failure to overcome
Manchester United or Bayern Munich in the two games before that, with